Welcome Home
by theonesthatcomeeasy
Summary: "You're going to have to acknowledge the truth eventually." / Something's wrong and Logan can't fix it no matter how hard he tries. Alternate take on the second season.


_**I've had the first half of this fanfic on my drive for the past few months. It's been kind of my pet project to work on whenever writing inspiration struck and whatever, which is odd considering the subject matter. I think it helped me work out some things not only in writing, but in this disturbed head of mine with some things I've been re-cooperating from this year. Or last year, if we're being technical. There's gotta be some plot holes in here. I know every time I re-read it I notice one and add a section here or a line there in hopes of patching it. Obviously, you will find this fic isn't even near canon.**_

_**Please write me and tell me what you think. 3**_

"You're drunk." Veronica comments flatly, not so much as looking up from her copy of People as he enters his room.

"I didn't know when you became my parole officer."

"I didn't."

"That kind of figures, seeing as she's not nearly as much of a bitch." He figures the line would be more biting if not so jumbled by the slurring. Or maybe it's more biting, what with her mother's history.

Veronica only snorts from her perch on his bed.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, Logan, but I don't think I should count someone's ability to assess my personality valid if they can hardly even walk."

"Well then it's a good thing we never had sex; I don't think you'd make it a day without judging everyone in the vicinity." Logan scowls as he drunkenly tumbles on his bed.

"Someone certainly thinks highly of himself."

Logan chuckles humorlessly at the girl next to him.

"What are you doing, Veronica?"

"Counting the days until Nick and Jessica divorce." She deadpans, lifting up the magazine in her hands to accentuate her point.

"What are you doing here?"

She tosses The Newlyweds' latest misadventures on his overpriced carpet.

"You already know the answer to that question."

* * *

Logan wakes up in a hungover stupor, knowing better than to look if she's still there.

She never is.

He's learned to adjust to the aftermath of Hurricane Veronica at any rate.

"You, me, some waves, and a couple of hot surfer chicks?" Dick gives Logan a suggestive pelvic thrust on their way to FBLA.

"I'll pass."

Dick groans.

"C'mon man, you've been a total pussy lately. It's Friday, man." He shakes his head in disgust, walking past him to class.

Logan's face remains impassive as he stops in front of a horrifically decorated bulletin board. Michelle Thomas babbling happily about her new cause.

"Oh my god, you should like, totally donate to the bus crash victims' yearbook spread, Logan. It's so important! I've already raised 200 dollars and I've only been doing it for a day. If we get enough money, I can even get one of those audio chi-"

"Just stop talking." He says sharply.

"Oh! Right!" Michelle's eyes widen almost comically. "I'm sooooo sorry, I know you knew Duncan's ex, the girl who was in the hospital for like-"

Logan takes the donate box in her hands and violently throws it into the trash can.

Michelle sputters indignantly.

"Hey! You're pay-"

"You can bill me." He snarls, ignoring the bell ringing and walking in the opposite direction of his next class.

* * *

"You know, it's typically frowned upon to be intoxicated in school."

"I figured your office was an exception."

Veronica sighs exasperatedly.

"I even hung an out-of-order sign. Just like old times." He smirks as she crosses her arms, unimpressed. "You know, when we were making out and you had your legs around my waist."

"You need to start going to class, Logan."

"So do you."

* * *

"Hey! Dick, about the beach tonight..."

He ends up in the X-Terra with some brunette almost as out of it as he is, drunkenly groping her without a lot of finesse.

He doesn't remember much else, just that she ran out of the car when he said Veronica's name.

"Whatever, at least I can still tell my friends I hooked up with Aaron Echolls' son." The girl (what was her name again?) slammed the yellow car door with as much force as she could manage.

* * *

The house is empty when Logan gets home. What, with Mrs. Navarro already having gone home, Trina shooting somewhere in Beverly Hills, and the only other occupant on trial for murder.

The house is always empty.

He knows the feeling.

So he takes his flask and another bottle of the expensive scotch for good measure upstairs to his room.

* * *

"I loved you." He mutters brokenly in Veronica's hair later that night.

"I know."

"I love you." Logan amends carefully.

She's silent in response for a beat. "You're going to have to acknowledge the truth eventually, Logan."

"That's where you're wrong."

"You need to let me go."

"I need you."

* * *

It's five in the morning when Dick drags him to the ER.

Logan doesn't remember calling him, but hell, he doesn't remember much of anything as of late.

"Man, this is getting really bad." Dick's voice is unusually serious.

"I'm fine, Dick."

"You're in the hospital for alcohol poisoning, dude. That's not fine, that's some fucked up Jude Law movie."

Logan shakes his head.

"You sound like Veronica."

Dick doesn't say anything else for the rest of the ride back home.

* * *

"You should stay with us." Dick suggests casually when Logan wakes up from the Casablancas' couch. "Dad and Kendall are gonna be overseas for like, a month. Some business thing. It's just gonna be me and Beav."

"You want me to stay to make sure I don't try to off myself?" Logan deadpans flatly.

"Dude, you forget we can't cook." Dick says in a duh tone. "If your pancakes were a hot chick, I'd make sweet love to them."

* * *

It takes Logan a day to find where Dick stashed the booze.

Veronica's here, again, lying down next to him in one of the Casablancas' extra bedrooms.

"How come you only seem to bug me when I'm drunk?"

"To prevent you from doing something stupid."

"Too late for that."

"Obviously." She rolls her eyes, running her hand across his newly grown stubble.

"You're starting to look like a lumberjack."

"Cosmo says it's sexy and masculine."

Veronica shakes her head. "Cosmo also says the best way to seduce your man is by not wearing a bra. Shave, you asshole. It's getting gross."

Five minutes later, he reluctantly complies, cursing as he nicks himself.

"Don't be such a baby about it."

* * *

"Dude, you shaved!"

"Alert the presses of this magnificent accomplishment."

Dick seems undeterred by Logan's sarcasm. "I've been so worried about you, bro. Maybe getting out of Casa De Killer did you some good."

Logan laughs at this.

"I think it was more with my friend Jack's help then change of scenery."

Dick's enthusiasm vanishes.

"And you're wasted."

"Ding ding ding! We have a winner."

"You've gotta stop doing this to yourself."

"Dick, if I wanted to stay with a judgmental prick, I'd ask the creators of Tinseltown Diaries for room and board." Logan growls.

"I'm being a friend, dude, isn't that part of our legendary bromance?"

"Yeah, you're a real pal."

Dick throws his hands in the air in exasperation.

"You're doing this thing where you destruct yourself!"

"Are you saying I'm being self-destructive?"

"Whatever the fucking word is."

"Well, thanks Dick. My self-destructive tendencies are completely brand new information." Logan grumbles sarcastically. "I'm getting the hell out of here, I don't need this from you of all people."

"Then who do you need it from? Newsflash, Logan, you don't have anyone else. Your mom jumped off a bridge, your dad bashed Lily's head in, Duncan is off on the East Coast somewhere, and Veronic-"

Logan cuts him off, "Don't you even dare bring Veronica into this!"

"VERONICA'S DEAD, LOGAN. The bus went off a cliff, and she lasted for a day in the hospital. You were too much of a god damned mess to even go to her funeral."

"You bastard." He whispers coarsely.

Dick cringes when he sees the lamp hit the wall.

"You fucking bastard." All the fight seems to leave Logan when he slumps against the wall.

"You're the best friend I've ever had, dude. Ronnie wouldn't want you to drink yourself to death."

"That's what she says." Logan mutters miserably.

It's the first time he hasn't seen Dick laugh at those words.

* * *

Logan stays there.

Like Dick said, it's not like he has anywhere else to go, anyways.

Beaver is always really frigidity when he's in the same room as he is, though. Logan amounts it to the fact he hasn't exactly been mentally stable as of late.

* * *

He's been in this scene before.

Students in the hall seem to be crowded around his locker, looking at something that clearly must be pasted on it.

He finally manages to shove past everyone to see what they were gossiping about. This time everyone knows better than to mouth off.

What was it this time?

More articles on his psychopathic father's trial? More Lynn-Echolls-Is-Really-Alive-and-Living-In-Cabo conspiracy theories courtesy of OK! Magazine? Did Trina get charged with possession again?

Nope.

It had to be something a hell of a lot worse.

_"THE BUS CRASH WASN'T AN ACCIDENT."_

They used permanent marker.

He wasn't going to wash it off at any rate.

* * *

_What the fuck._

The words are on an endless loop in his head when he bangs his head against the X-Terra's steering wheel.

He refused to watch or hear anything about the bus crash since Veronica flat-lined in that hell hole known as Neptune General.

But from what he gathered, Lamb didn't exactly provide a stellar argument that the bus driver was just a drunken moron.

And he was just too much of a plastered dick who could barely find his own ass with both hands to even find out what happened to her.

Veronica had worked tirelessly in solving Lily's case. Even when everyone else had gone along with the suspect provided by the Kane family.

Logan included.

He asked her that one day, snooping on her laptop, why she couldn't just admit that Abel Koontz did it. That he murdered Lily in cold blood and the Kanes were the victims in all this mess.

Veronica said she couldn't let it go because she loved Lily.

_I'm falling in love with you_

_The things guys will say to get past second base._

It's the same reason he's knocking on Mars Investigations' office door.

He's surprised to see Wallace at the other end of the door.

Even more so when he sees Weevil at the desk that Veronica used to occupy.

"The bus crash," He swallows the lump in his throat. "it wasn't an accident."

Wallace and Weevil share dubious looks.

* * *

"So what are we going to do?" Weevil asks gruffly after Logan explained the day's events to him. The biker gradually softened up to Logan after he figured out who really killed Felix around the end of the summer. Thumper was serving his term in prison.

"What would Veronica do in a situation like this?" Wallace ponders.

"Whatever it takes." Logan answers. "We've gotta do whatever it takes to figure out what happened. She wouldn't let it go without finding out the truth."

"That's deep and everything lover boy, but do you have any actual plan?" Weevil scowls.

"Do you think we can get on that bus?" Wallace suggests.

* * *

Logan finds an old fake sanatian uniform of Keith's in the closet. It's a little short on him, but it works well enough to get into the police locker.

Bus 188.

He's grateful for the flashlight, and even more grateful for the bug.

"Okay, white boy, what do you see?" Weevil's voice crackles through the earpiece.

"Uh, the inside of a bus."

"Real funny. Check under the seats."

Logan rolls his eyes, but complies with Weevil's instructions.

"Just some gum stuck to the-"

He stops talking when he sees the rodent.

"There's a rat strapped to the bottom of the seat."

"Just a rat?"

"It's duct taped to the seat, but yeah."

A beat passes.

"Think you can bring it back with you?"

"I loved this jacket." Logan grumbles as he enters Mars Investigations, deceased rat tucked firmly in a letterman jacket.

"Yeah, well you loved Veronica more, dumbass." Weevil snarks.

"I don't suppose there isn't a word for tact in espanol, asshole." Logan swiftly replies.

"No, but there's an old saying, 'ir joder usted mismo'"

Wallace interrupts their banter by purposefully clearing his throat.

"How is this gonna help us find anything, though? What are we gonna do, sniff that thing for clues?"

"Maybe the rat drove the bus off a cliff." Logan adds unhelpfully.

Weevil takes a minute to think about it.

"Or maybe someone on that bus was the rat."

* * *

He spends the night going over ever possible aspect of the bus crash. Wallace and Weevil found some files on several of the Bus Crash Victims, (courtesy of Wallace's key to Neptune High's office) and he'd been pouring over every blog post, every radio cast that Mac, who stopped by the office on a regular basis to help had provided, and whatever else happened to be available.

One of them was the rat.

Logan's not ready to acknowledge that it could be Veronica.

* * *

_Logan and Veronica are infused at the mouth in the back of the school bus. Hands are everywhere, lips are everywhere, and legs are propped in suggestive places._

_"Hey, Romeo, think you can cut it out back there?" Cervando Esparza sneers, seemingly appearing out of nowhere in the next seat._

_"Great," Veronica mutters, disentangling herself from Logan's arms. "we have an audience."_

_"Let Cervando speak for himself," Peter Ferrer grins wolfishly from his seat in front of Cervando, turning around to face them. "I'm all for PDA."_

_"I thought you were homo." Marcos Oliveres raises an eyebrow._

_"Oh, I am."_

_Marcos gags in the seat next to Cervando. "I thought even flaming gay dudes had better taste than the Cock of the fucking Walk."_

_Peter shrugs._

_"Son of movie stars, man, at least it's me and every other reader of Tiger Beat."_

_Betina and Rhonda snort towards the front._

_Logan looks around bewildered, wondering how the hell everyone got on the bus so fast._

_"It's freezing in here." Veronica shivers, leaning further into Logan. Her previously dry hair is dripping with water._

_What the hell._

_"Jesus, Veronica, you're soaking wet."_

* * *

Logan wakes up in a cold sweat.

_I was hoping it would be you._

_Are you saying you're not pretty?_

_It's not about loyalty, Logan, it's about pride._

_And then his own words._

_I'm gonna miss you._

He wishes he were on that bus, too.

* * *

"We should talk to Mr. Mars." Logan says after they finish going over Marco's file for the fiftieth time.

Wallace stutters and Weevil looks uncomfortable.

"I don't think that such a good idea, man." Wallace scratches the back of his neck in a clearly uncomfortable manner.

"Me and Wallace... we've been doing all the paperwork and whatever for the P.I. stuff until he's...y'know."

Functional enough to get back to get out of bed after the death of the most important person in his life.

Logan can relate.

* * *

Logan's at the Mars' apartment complex fifteen minutes later.

He starts pacing their doorstep, unsure of how to even approach Keith Mars after everything.

_'Hey, Mr. Mars! It's me, Logan! Remember how you kicked my ungrateful ass out your door for yelling at your daughter and breaking your cheap light fixtures? Well, speaking of said dead daughter, I think she was murdered!'_

Damn.

He knocks on the door anyways because he knows no one else will be able to help him solve this particular mystery.

Slowly, excruciatingly, Logan explains everything he, Wallace, and Weevil have found out about the bus crash.

Keith Mars doesn't look like the same man as he did a month ago. His clothes are a bit more rumpled, his five o' clock shadow a little more defined, and it hardly looked like his apartment had even been touched in the last four weeks.

But he's still Veronica's Dad: the man who would do anything for his little girl no matter what.

Even investigate her murder.

"Finding out who wrote on your locker would be a good first step."

"I figured as much."

* * *

"Jessie! Fancy seeing you here!" Logan greets as the infamous daughter of the bus driver enters the girls' bathroom.

"Well, we are in her office." She observes cautiously. "You hung an out-of-order sign. I figured it was a sign you got my message."

Logan frowns.

"Let's cut the bullshit here. Why did you did you send that particular message?"

"Because I knew you'd be the only one who cared enough to do something about it."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"Come on, you were a total train wreck after Veronica died. It was like when your first girlfriend died, but instead of being a total asshole you just got drunk and weepy." Jessie's tone is unsympathetic. "I figured I'd wait until you stopped showing signs of public intoxication before I did something about it."

"How polite of you." He mutters sardonically.

"I figured after a second dead girlfriend you needed a beat." Jessie shrugs.

"Back to the point, what the hell possessed you to write on it in the first place?"

"Because I need proof that my father didn't kill himself. Um, I have a mother and a little brother and we've become accustomed to having a place to live and, like, food. Insurance companies don't pay if they decide it's suicide."

"So you have absolutely nothing that will help me figure out who murdered Veronica?"

She pauses.

"Try talking to Michelle? I would, but being the daughter of the bus driver who supposedly murdered all the dead kids she's whoring out, she won't talk to me." Jessi rolls her eyes. "Just do your whole Romeo thing."

Oh hell.

* * *

He approaches the obnoxious billboard with the two hundred he promised the nut job.

Michelle still has that wide-eyed, Margot Kidder in a bush look as she gratefully simpers in response.

"I know you're just grieving in your own way, Logan. Listen, I have something that totally may help you reach the final stage of acceptance. It doe-"

"Just get to the fucking point."

She appears unaffected by the jab.

"I have this recording of all the kids laughing and being happy on the bus. You might even hear Veronica."

It's a lead, at any rate.

* * *

When Logan enters the Casablancas' foyer, he's greeted by Dick and Beaver playing video games in the living room.

"Hey, dude, check this out. I'm kicking Beaver's ass."

Beaver only rolls his eyes.

"Wrong side of the screen, genius."

"Shit!" Dick scrambles to get back to his earlier progress, but ultimately fails.

"Hey, dude, listen, can I talk to you for a minute?" Logan asks lowly, tilting his head toward to kitchen.

"Sure man, what's up?" He follows Logan into the kitchen, casually flipping his shaggy blonde hair as he does so.

"Did you hook up with Betina before the bus crash?" Logan questions lowly, clasping a hand on Dick's shoulder.

Dick sputters.

"Yeah, man, but it was totally casual."

"Did you know if she had any enemies or anything?"

"No, dude. We didn't do a whole lot of talking." Dick raises his eyebrows suggestively.

At least some things haven't changed.

* * *

Turns out, Michelle has another voicemail on her home phone.

They aren't laughing.

Just falling to their deaths.

He nearly doesn't make it to the bathroom fast enough to empty the bile rising in his throat.

Logan doesn't bother getting a shot glass, just grabs the bottle.

"How am I supposed to do this, Veronica?" Logan drawls pathetically.

Veronica only sighs.

"Play me that recording."

"What?"

"I said, play me that voicemail.'' Veronica enunciates as if she's talking to a five-year old.

"You want to hear yourself falling to your death."

"If it makes you feel any better, I technically didn't die until the next day."

Logan gets out his phone.

* * *

He's at Keith Mars' apartment complex again.

"You should hear this." He says as a substitute for a greeting.

Logan has to give the elder man some credit; he doesn't vomit. Keith doesn't even cry or so much as tear up. He just gets this determined look in his eye.

It's the same look Veronica always got.

"The explosion," Keith mutters grimly. "the bus exploded."

Logan swallows the lump in his throat and nods.

* * *

Logan, Keith, Wallace, and Weevil spend the next five months following every lead they can get their hands on. Terrence Cook's plausible involvement? Cleared. Peter Ferrer's possible love affair with Mr. Wu? Fictitious. The drawing of nine coffins on the bus? Shitty album art. The money trail to Kendall Casablancas? They're working on it.

Logan's house burns down, and he books a room at the Grand. It was almost a waste of money, considering he mainly just crashed on Keith's couch most nights. Endlessly exploring every possible lead. It was miracle Keith hadn't thrown him out yet.

"I see you replaced the lamp." Logan half-heartedly snarks when Keith supplies him with blankets from the closet.

"I'm still expecting payment for breaking it." Keith doesn't miss a beat.

"It's been kind of hard to do, since I'm banned from your threshold and all."

"I'm not sorry for kicking you out that night. You were yelling at my daughter." Keith says unapologetically.

Logan's expression becomes morose. "I'm sorry for yelling at her. And for breaking your lamp." He knots his hand into his hair. "And for being such a colossal fu-" Keith raises an eyebrow at him. "screw up last summer. Veronica didn't deserve having to deal with someone like me. I was an idiot who was more concerned about getting even with the PCHers than the girl in front of me."

"You made mistakes, Logan. You had a lot to deal with, not that it's any sort of excuse for your behavior, but" He sits down next to Logan on the couch clasps a hand on his shoulder. "I understand."

Logan isn't comforted. "It's over now. Veronica isn't coming back to bitch at me for being an idiot and I can't tell her I'd do anything to take last summer back."

"You can't pay for your mistakes for the rest of your life, Logan. At some point you're going to have to move on." Keith says softly.

"I'll tell you what, I'll move on as soon as the person who did this to her suffers for it."

Keith smiles sadly. "She used to say the exact same thing."

* * *

"Who would have the means to blow up a bus?" Weevil ponders, chopsticks in his hand at one of the weekly meetings between the three of them.

"Hell if I know," Logan mutters disgustedly, throwing down his carton of Chinese on the desk. "I mean, you'd have to be really good at-"

"At what?" Wallace questions.

"Making a that type of shit. Weevil, you know that Hart kid who had that video of my mo- made the really lame war movies?"

"Your point?"

"Where did he get the explosives from for that? I saw him with his wimpy buddies, and they seemed to have an unlimited supply."

"I'll ask around." Weevil shrugs.

* * *

Logan is staying after school one day for some dumb Journalism meeting (Keith had encouraged him to get more involved in that sort of thing-Logan isn't entirely sure when he started listening to Keith.) from which he escaped from. Gia, the mayor's overly bubbly daughter, had been talking his ear off about some bodybuilding lunch-lady, and thankfully he managed to get away from her to "run errands".

"Hey, Logan." Lucky, one of the night janitors who had hooked himself and Dick with enough pot and beer to last the teenagers all summer, greeted.

"Lucky." He acknowledged with a nod.

He gets in the car and is almost to Keith's when he realizes he left his Art History book in the Journalism room.

Thankfully, his illegal U-turn is unnoticed.

"You wanna see something cool?" Logan hears Lucky's unstable voice wavering through the hallway on his way back to his car.

"What are you doing with that?" Gia's voice is shaky. "Mind putting that down?"

"I thought you wanted a real human interest story, Gia. You know, your dad had a lot of...interests."

Logan opens the janitorial door. "Dude, what the hell is going on?

Gia looks like she's just seen her savior and Lucky seems pissed. "Butt out, Echolls, this is between me and her."

"Just put the knife down, man." He may not like or be able to tolerate Gia, but he doesn't want her dead because of him.

"I said, mind your goddamn business boy." Lucky waves the knife in Logan's face, indifferent to Gia's horrified expression.

So Logan tackles him.

* * *

That's how he ends up on a bench at the Sheriff's with a minor cut on his arm and an exhausted Keith Mars.

"Now I'll never be able to get rid of her." Logan growls as Gia tells an unsuspecting deputy the tale of how brave and macho he was.

"That's the price of being a hero, son."

Logan shakes his head, then seems to remember something. "Lucky said something, y'know, about the mayor."

"Woody Goodman? What'd he say?" Keith raises an eyebrow in interest.

"Something about Woody Goodman having a human interest in him." Logan shrugs. "It could be nothing, I just thought it was weird."

Keith's forehead furrows. "Do you know anything else?"

"Yeah, uh, during the summer I caught him pouring bleach on his feet. He was wearing a catcher's helmet."

* * *

Apparently Neptune's good old mayor was a child molester, if Keith's recap of his conversation with Lucky was anything to go by.

Logan, as a favor to Mr. Mars, spends the afternoon at Gia's for a journalism project to rifle through Woody Goodman's inbox with the password Keith had helpfully provided. He has to go through financial questions and forwards until he sees what he's looking for.

_"Kill incorporation or else"_

Jackpot.

* * *

_"Get up, you big log." Veronica tugs on Logan's arm playfully._

_"Don't wanna," Logan mutters, sneakily pulling her down to his bed at the Grand and snaring his arms around her. "must sleep with annoying, perky girlfriend."_

_"You're not sleeping with your annoying girlfriend without a high school diploma." Veronica mutters into his neck, having already dressed at home and is ready to go in a flattering black dress._

_"You drive a hard bargain." Logan releases a long-suffering breath. "Alright, I'm getting up." Veronica yelps as he does just that while scooping her up in the process._

_They meet Dick and Duncan in the quad ten minutes late, both of the boys already outfitted in their green graduation robes. _

_"Guess who is going commando?" Dick makes a lewd gesture with his hips as Duncan shakes his head._

_"Must we?"_

_"Wallace!" Veronica calls over, motioning for him to join the group when she spots him in the crowd as Logan hops on the table next to his friends. _

_"They grow up so fast." A voice behind the group calls out._

_Dick whistles in response to the owner of the voice. "Lookin' good Kane! You still with that guy from Vassar or are you ready to board the Dick train?"_

_Duncan slugs him in arm. "Dude, that's my sister!"_

_Wallace holds up his shrink-wrapped graduation gear when he joins the group. "Pretty sure I got the wrong cap and gown." _

_Duncan whips his cap off, peering inside it. "How exactly can you tell?"_

_"Wrong name," Wallace grins "anyone know a girl by the name of Veronica Mars?"_

_Veronica, realizing her's had Wallace's name on it, quickly swaps with her other best friend while Lilly, Duncan, Logan, and Dick chuckle._

_"Must have been a mix up." Lilly shrugs._

_"Yeah, that's what you think." Veronica glares at the offending plastic, then at Madison Sinclair who was in charge of handing the robes out._

_Logan laughs and slips off the table towards his girlfriend, giving her a sound kiss on the lips. "Aw, sweetie, I love you. But you have to be the most suspicious girl I've ever met."_

_Veronica rolls her eyes, then scrunches her face and seems to concentrate._

_"Anyone else smell bacon?"_

* * *

"Rise and shine, sleeping beauty. I made breakfast, its gonna be a long day." Keith greets as Logan shoots up from his spot on the couch. Then proceeds to slump back down.

Logan pulls into the school, picking up an adequately labeled set of cap and gown. Dick and Wallace, who had oddly enough become friends, greet him in the quad.

When he receives his diploma, he sees Keith and (of course) the 09er crowd cheer. It's an odd feeling.

* * *

Keith stops him on his way out of the gym.

"I'm on my way to nail Woody in a hour, but" he pulls out an envelope out of his jacket "for you on this momentous occasion."

Logan looks puzzled, but proceeds to tear open the seal. "Congratulations, Mr. Echolls, it is our pleasure to inform you that you've been accepted into our program here at Hearst." He reads aloud, then snorts, "What if this was a letter saying I didn't get in? What kind of graduation gift would that be?"

Keith had pressured him to apply for as many colleges as possible, and didn't ask questions when Logan put his address as the Mars' residence. "I knew it wasn't that kind of letter."

It's an odd feeling, having someone have faith in you like that. Logan's father had always been a self-serving psychopath who was recently given life in prison, but over the year himself and Keith grew closer. Keith lost his kid, and Logan had bugged him enough to let him take up his room and board.

"Thanks." He says simply.

"I'm proud of you, Logan. But, I gotta go get the bad guy. You have fun tonight." Keith leaves and Dick appears in the place he vacated.

"Put on your dancing shoes, Logan, 'cause tonight we're gonna up chuck the boogie to rhythm of the boogie the beat."

Logan snorts. "Upchuck?"

"You heard me, bro, you're coming with me to get this party started."

* * *

Logan ends up stuck blowing up party balloons.

"Is this what giving a blowjob is like?" Dick asks, tying a knot in the green balloon he's holding. "'Cause I gotta say, if it is I don't know why it makes girls bitch so much."

"Dude," Logan says, shaking his head in both disgust and amusement. "never ask me that again."

"Hey, Dick!" Beaver pipes up "I can't believe you dragged me into decorating for this stupid thing."

_"Please don't drag me into this."_

He's getting the weirdest sense of déjà vu, and he swears he's heard that voice saying those words before.

Saying them to Peter and Marcos.

As Beaver walks away, Logan leans over to Dick to piece together what exactly is going on in his head. "Dick, was Beaver in Little League?"

Dick guffaws, "Oh man, Beaver loved that stupid shit. Dad signed him up to, y'know, man him up and shit, and he jus-"

"Excuse me for a sec, Dick." He walks over to the corner of the room, balancing himself against the wall as he pulls his cell phone out. The other line picks up on the third ring. "Weevil, did you figure out anything with the Hart kid."

"Jesus, man, I'm out with my grandma celebrating the fact i graduated, now is not the ti-"

"Did. You. Find. Anything. Out." Logan bites out the words.

"Hart has been getting explosives from some scrawny white boy. Kid described him as kinda lookin' like a be-"

"Beaver." Logan supplies grimly, shutting his phone.

He tries to call Keith, but he doesn't pick up. Logan only leaves a voicemail, "Hey, I found out something. The other kid in the recording? That was Beaver Casablancas. He's been making explosives for sophomores. He blew up the bus. Call me back."

* * *

The party is just starting and it had recently gotten dark when Logan approaches Dick again. "Where the hell is your brother?"

"I think he took Ghost World up to his room. They're probably up there making love. Or playing Dungeons and Dragons. Or both, at the same time." Dick commentates helpfully as Logan hurries away.

"Dude, why are you acting all offended? They're both like, twelvth level dorks! I'm just saying!" Dick calls after him.

Logan approaches the help desk of the hotel lobby in a panic. "Where is Cassidy Casablancas staying?"

"I'm not at liberty to give away that information," The unhelpful hotel receptionist states. Logan clenches his fists and gets out his wallet, slapping a fifty on the counter.

"How about now?"

"I can ring up to his room." She types at the keyboard in front of her, then smiles apologetically. "Sorry, there's Do Not Disturb on the room."

Logan growls and starts to whip out his wallet again before the receptionist stops him. "Keep your money, we don't accept bribes."

"Thanks for being extraordinarily unhelpful." He snipes at the woman, pulling out his phone and typing a message to Mac, who, along with Wallace and Weevil, had kindly provided him with her number for Veronica's case.

* * *

_"Meet me on the roof now." _

Logan snaps his phone shut from his spot in his car, shoving something from the glove compartment into his jeans and heading towards the elevator.

"I don't see why you insisted on the roof as opposed to the lobby, bu-" Logan stops mid sentence when he spots Cassidy where Mac should be. "Well, you're not Mac."

"Hey, Logan." Cassidy greets nonchalantly, gun in hand.

"Tell me where Mac is before I start breaking your fucking bones for killing my girlfriend." Logan voice is icy and his demeanor matches his words.

Beaver only waves his gun. "You see I don't think you can do that. Besides, Mac is in a better place now. Too bad she didn't get your message."

Logan laughs humorlessly, doing his best to hide the panic in his voice. "Oh please, Beaver, do you think that thing makes you invincible? We both know I could kick your ass in a second."

Beaver's grip on the gun doesn't waver despite Logan's taunt. "'Beaver's a killer', huh? That's a pretty serious accusation. You must have gotten that from your girlfriend, accusing everyone you know of a horrible crime."

Logan tenses, but doesn't take the bait. "Did you think that killing my girlfriend would make you feel like more of a man after Woody molested you?"

Beaver smirks as if he's in on an inside joke. "Not really, but I'll tell you, having sex with her sure did." Logan's face pales, and Beaver seems to be giving himself a pat on the back. ". Shelly Pomroy's party, your sophomore year. As far as Veronica knew, I left her alone and puked on Carrie Bishop's shoes. Dick still thinks I'm a virgin."

"You sick bastard." Logan tackles Beaver to the ground, knocking the gun out of his hand and out of reach. Beaver attempts to grapple with him. Logan gets up, pulling something out of his jacket.

"Give me one fucking reason not to kill you right now." He grits out of his teeth, hands stable on the gun.

Beaver only offers him a sadistic grin. "You know, I was gonna be nice and offer you a last goodbye with your wanna-be daddy. He's on Woody's plane, you know. But, seeing as you don't wanna play nice..." He gets out his phone and presses a button. Logan whips around, gun still in hand, to see a private jet explode. One hosting both Woody and Keith.

"You know, this'll be great. Like father, like son, both of you will be psychotic killers. Murdering unsuspecting teenagers." Logan's face is ashen as he takes in Cassidy's words. "Maybe you'll get bunk beds next to each other."

Logan says nothing, only picks up Cassidy's gun from the ground and shoves it in his back pocket. His own still in hand.

* * *

_"Maybe I'm destined to end up like dear old dad." Logan says. It's last summer, and himself and Veronica had just gotten back from his trial for the murder of Felix Toombs. Both are in the living room watching the coverage on CNN at the Echolls mansion. _

_"No." Veronica says vehemently, intertwining her hands into his. "No, Logan, you're nothing like your father. You're a better man then he will ever be."_

_"Isn't there any part of you wondering if there's something in my genetic code screaming "psychopathic murderer?" Logan marvels, tightening his grip on her fingers._

_"No. There isn't." Veronica curls into him. "You're not a killer, Logan."_

* * *

The gun isn't even loaded, anyway.

That doesn't mean he feels even a bit of sympathy when Cassidy waltzes off the roof, however.

He's not a killer, but Beaver is.

* * *

After the cops are done questioning him and he finds Mac, he doesn't have the heart to see Dick's face when he finds out his baby brother is not only a psycho, but dead.

He gets into the Mars' apartment with the keys Keith gave him and that's when it all starts to sink in. His mother is dead; she pranced off a bridge. His father is (rightly) in a maximum security prison. Veronica is dead because Cassidy wanted to cover up what happened to him. Keith Mars is dead because Logan spooked Cassidy too quickly.

All the people that used to live in this house are dead. Keith and Veronica Mars, the only really wholesome family in Neptune were gone. Keith, the only father figure he'd really had, the only adult that really had gave a damn in his life was killed. Veronica, the woman he'd loved since he was fucking twelve years old, who spat in his face and held him accountable, who defended those who needed it and even those who didn't, who looked him in the eyes and told him he was nothing like his father was taken away from him.

How ironic that the two people Logan vowed to take down two years ago he'd do anything to get back.

* * *

_Veronica is resting her head on Logan's chest on the Mars' couch. The Big Lebowski is playing on their small TV and he's never been more content in his life._

_"You know, I thought our story was epic. You and me." Logan absent mindedly strokes her hair._

_Veronica makes a skeptic noise. 'Epic how?"_

_"Spanning years and continents, lives ruined, bloodshed, epic!" _

_"Okay, it hasn't even been a year. And continents? Are you seeing someone in England you're not telling me about?" _

_"You live to kill my romanticism." He smirks at her, and she only shoves his arm in response._

_"Where do you come up with this stuff?"_

* * *

Logan is nudged awake about four hours after he manages to fall asleep.

"I made bacon." Keith Mars states. "You have a lot of explaining to do."

Logan has never been more relieved to see anyone in his life.

_fin._


End file.
